General Question

Will there ever be a UK equivalent of Barack Obama?

The UK is a far more progressive nation than the US. We’ve just recently seen a woman as serious candidate for the US presidency for the first time, while thirty years ago Great Britain put a woman in the prime minister position. Now we are on the verge of having (knock on wood) the first African-American president of the United States or America. With the UK black population just over 2% (as opposed to 13.4% in the US), is race an issue in British politics? Is there an up and coming black British up and political figure in England? Is there a near future where the UK could find itself with a black prime minister? I’m especially anxious to read what you British flutherers have to answer.

Not a brit myself, but having been there, I didn’t get the sense that blacks in Britain were really treated or thought of any differently than any other racial demographic, they just “ARE” same as whites, yellows, browns, whatever. I’m suspecting their lack of a black leader is a function of the small number of blacks in the country. Think about how many British Celebrities you can think of. Now think of how many of them are black. What to you come up with…Seal?

In other words, in a county which doesn’t have as deep a history of wholesale black slave labor (on its own shores) or segregation, Jim Crow, etc., one wouldn’t expect “racism” to be as much an inherent trait of the electorate. I’d say Britain will see a black leader someday, but 2% is 1/50th of the population. That would mean that on average one in 50 leaders should be black. Of course we can’t go back through the entire history of the British Empire, just since blacks have been an established minority in the country.

It’ll happen some day. The UK is home to such a variety of types of persons. I live in L.A., which has many different ethnic groups, and I visit London almost ever year on business (and pleasure). It is at least as culturally diverse as L.A.

I must say that my English friends are great supporters of Obama. They are looking forward to his Presidency.

On another note. I believe the question was about a Brit equivalent to Obama. As far as I know Obama’s main defining feature isn’t that he’s black. It’s our actions that define us not our beliefs or physical traits.

As a Brit (white) I see no reason why we cannot have a black PM. In the past we have had a Jewish PM and a woman. Why not.

Of course our system is different, PM is not the same as President although the lines are becoming blurred. In theory we vote for out local member of parliament (House of Commons) and whichever party has the most members of parliament gets to form the government. The PM is the leader of that party. So a potential black PM must first become leader of their party.

There are black members of parliament 15 out of 646, so the odds aren’t great, but I’m guessing that Maggie Thatcher probably faced similar odds as a woman in the 70’s. But of course she was not reperesenting a minority in the population. Race can be an issue to those who want it to be, politics is a dirty place wherever you are.

@AstroChuck be careful with English and British, they are not interchangeable. Now there’s a race issue. ;-)

@lercio- I know that. When I asked if there was an up and coming black politician in England, I meant to include Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Picts, Druids, etc., so I should have said the United Kingdom. I usually use UK when talking about the PM, that way I’m all inclusive. But I’ve never heard the term UK blacks, just black British.